


Thanks, Princess

by bowlingfornerds



Category: The 100
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Another version of it, Canon, Canon Universe, Death, Episode: s02e08 Spacewalker, F/M, Love, Murder, Soulmates, Words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-13
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-30 08:49:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3930532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bowlingfornerds/pseuds/bowlingfornerds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I love you, too,” she said, tears in her eyes as she pulled away. She meant it. She meant every word and she wished she had said it sooner to him. She could hear the words coming that she had been waiting for. She could hear her 'Clarke, please' coming.</p><p>“I’m scared,” Finn whispered and she nodded, holding his face in her hands. </p><p> </p><p>Finn's death scene, written in the canon universe - but with the following tumblr prompt applied:</p><p>soulmate au where instead of your soulmate's first words to you written on your skin, it's their last words you ever hear them say, so you don't know who your soulmate is until you lose them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thanks, Princess

**Author's Note:**

> Based during Season 2, Episode 8 - Spacewalker. All of the lines are the same, but it's just the emotions and the slight change to the universe that changes the meaning of what's happening for her. I hope you enjoy it

_Clarke, please._ A five year old Clarke stared at the words written on her left arm, sighing at the possibilities. In the memory, she saw her father crying when she showed them to her, and then his arms wrapping themselves around her tiny frame. Her mother had joined the hug, before rolling up her own sleeve like she had done so many times before. Clarke read the words; _I love you, kid,_ before looking up at her mother’s face. Abby was weary, tired, from working in the med bay of the ARK, but there was love in her eyes – clear as day. Next to the girls, Clarke’s father, Jake, stuck out his arm as his daughter looked over the words, again and again. _You don’t want to see this._

As Clarke stood, on the darkened hill, she sighed at the memory. She had never understood the words, but she knew that they were a medical mystery – emerging slowly from birth, never clear enough to read until you had reached five or six years old. She had seen her fate that day – it was the first day, too. _Clarke, please._ She spent her life, waiting to hear those words – and had, multiple times. Girls and boys, men and women alike had said them to her throughout her life – but none of them had died afterwards.

The words meant only one thing – at least, only one thing they had known of, when up on the ARK. The grounders also had them, but written in their own language, usually. Sometimes Clarke would walk past a grounder, covered in bear hides and weapons, and notice words in English, written on the inside of the left forearm. She never looked at the words for too long, though – no one ever did.

And now she stood, watching from hundreds of metres away as the man she knew she loved was marched to a pole and tied there. Raven was begging her from her side – and she knew she heard the words ‘Clarke, please’ – she just hoped that Raven wouldn’t be saying those words last.

Luckily, she didn’t. Raven kept on speaking as Clarke’s mind cleared. She was hand a small knife, too. Although she was sure that her friend had given it to her to kill Lexa – not for what she had in mind. She had heard about the grounders punishments the same way she had heard about the words – rumours and whispers, before being blunt and obvious about it all. Except the words were a different fate than being strung up, and they all knew it.

Despite being told not to, Clarke walked steadily towards the grounder camp. She watched as men and women moved away from her, creating an even path down the slope. Her heart was in her throat, and she felt as if she couldn’t breathe – but she had no other option. The torches illuminated the faces of her enemies – soon to be allies. She didn’t know the faces, but recognised the swirling patterns of their tattoos, some that stayed from the neck down, and others that crawled themselves up the sides of their faces. She looked away. Clarke blocked her view of their faces, their arms, away from her sight and stared at the ground as she went. Her head may have been held up high – a sign of courage among the grounders – but her eyes drifted across the grass.

Soon enough, she reached the Commander of the grounders – Lexa. They exchanged only few words – knowing she’d asked for this to be stopped, but as Lexa declined; “we are what we are”, she asked only to be able to say goodbye. Goodbye to Finn. When she looked at him from up close, she was aware that she loved him. She didn’t want to admit it after the atrocities he had committed to get himself in that position – but she knew it was what he wanted to hear; and what she wanted to say.

She reached Finn in only a matter of seconds, leaving Lexa behind. She knew the grounders surrounded her, but she did what she had to do. Her mind flashed back over her moments with Finn – the spacewalker, the first hunts, the moments in the bunker, before landing solidly on the village. The village he massacred.

Her eyes flashed down to her left arm, and she knew that this could be the moment. These could be the last words she ever heard Finn say. And even though her mind shouldn’t have left Finn – it did, all the way back to the ARK, where the words were explained for the first time.

 

\---

 

“They’re your soulmate’s,” her mother had whispered to her, one night in bed. Clarke had been questioning the words over and over; not yet fully formed on her arm. She couldn’t make out a single word yet, but she knew them to be important. “The words are the last words you’ll ever hear your soulmate say.” Clarke’s eyes had widened and stared at her mother in disbelief. It shouldn’t have been possible to have them, scorched across her arm.

“But how?” She had asked, glancing to her mother’s arm. _I love you, kid_ , she had read. Clarke’s father called her ‘kid’ every day, and she wondered why those were his last words. Or, at least, the last words her mother would ever hear him say.

“No one knows,” her mother replied eventually.

“But you’re a doctor! You know everything.” Abby just shook her head.

“I wish I did, sweetie.” Clarke swallowed down the lump in her throat. “It’s a mystery – but that’s what the words are: a mystery until you hear them.”

 

\---

 

She reached Finn and held back a sob. She instead pressed his lips to his, cupping the side of his face and feeling everything he felt. She couldn’t let him go – she couldn’t let him be tortured by these people. What if he was her soulmate, she wondered. But she focused on his lips against hers, and held them there for all it was worth. She loved him and she could feel it in her bones.

They kissed for a while – but even when she pulled away and left a few shorter kisses on his lips, she felt it was too soon. She should have continued to kiss him, so he would live longer.

“I love you, too,” she said, tears in her eyes as she pulled away. She meant it. She meant every word and she wished she had said it sooner to him. She could hear the words coming that she had been waiting for. She could hear her _Clarke, please_ coming.

“I’m scared,” Finn whispered and she nodded, holding his face in her hands. Instead of replying, she moved in closer to him, hugging him in her arms. The blade that Raven had passed her slid out of her sleeve and into her hand. Then, she gently pressed it into his stomach, waiting for the words.

She felt the tears skim down her cheeks and Finn’s body tense as the blood seeped out. But she knew she was doing the right thing – that this was the only way to save him.

“You’re gonna be okay,” she said to him quietly, as small moans rose from Finn’s lips. He felt the pain, but Clarke knew it was a lot less pain this way, than the other. They both knew that she’d told the truth – he was going to be okay. He wasn’t going to be tortured and burned alive today. This was the alternative.

Clarke took a few ragged breaths as she pressed the blade harder into his skin, and he heard the groans from Finn – from the boy she loved. He was going and they knew it. She waited for the words, still.

“You’re okay,” she said quietly – more to herself than to Finn. You’re okay, she repeated in her head.

“Thanks, Princess,” Finn whispered in her ear. Clarke let out a sob – for so many reasons. For the boy she loved; for the blade in his stomach; for the future they couldn’t have, and those of the village. She held back her tears as best she could as she waited, suddenly aware that the words weren’t coming.  Then she felt the weight of Finn’s head on her shoulder and held her position for a few more seconds, breathing in all that was Finn and memorising how his touch felt.

Slowly she moved out from underneath him, holding in her sobs, as his head dropped. His neck craned forward and she watched, Finn’s mop of dark hair hanging limply from his tied body. She gripped the knife in her hand, staring for a moment at the red patch that grew from Finn’s body. Then she turned, looking at the shocked faces of the grounders. She had done it. She hated herself, but she knew it was the only option she could have allowed.

After that, she wasn’t aware of much. She didn’t know that the grounders had spurred themselves forward, or that Lexa had stopped them. She was only aware of the stark silence, pierced by Raven’s screams. She was only aware of the blood, dripping from her hand and the words, tattooed on her body. Clarke was tempted to roll up her sleeve and check them – but she knew they wouldn’t be there. Part of her had wished for him to be her soulmate; for the words _thanks, Princess_ to be etched into her skin. But she had spent too many nights staring at the words, and she knew that they weren’t it.

As she stared up at the hill where her friends and family stood, she was so aware that she had killed Finn; that his body was lifeless and bleeding. But, at the same time, she knew that she hadn’t killed her soulmate.

**Author's Note:**

> I was super psyched to write this, although I'm not great at depicting sadness. So please leave a comment and stuff and tell me how you liked it - because I thought that not hearing the words would be just as painful as her actually hearing them.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Clarke, please](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6830131) by [bowlingfornerds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bowlingfornerds/pseuds/bowlingfornerds)




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